Greece and the euro, from walking dead to zombie?

“After six months of very difficult negotiations with lots of ups and downs, we finally have an agreement,” announced Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos in August 2015. Since then and after much concern about an impending risk of euro area’s collapse, there has been almost complete silence on the whereabouts of Greece, yet capital-controlled, afterwards.

Over €20 billion from the EU budget are ready to flow into Greece’s real economy and the EU remains committed to assisting the Greek authorities in their efforts of a “lasting recovery.” According to the ECB, the “Greek experience” offereduseful lessons on the functioning of the euro area and President Mario Draghireminded that “emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) could be neither unlimited nor unconditional.”

In the meantime, Greece is still facing a major humanitarian crisis with an unprecedented landslide of dozens of thousands refugees landing on Greek islands’ shores each week. Building hot spots and receiving €450 million support aid from the EU is welcomed, but there’s utter need to find a “European solution,” stressed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Apart from reassuring speeches asserting the Grexit was defeated, there is little convincing data about a Greece’s economic recovery that’d be strong enough to walk EU crutches-free. A walking dead is noisy, a zombie is quiet. Which one is Greece today?